Business Ethics and Responsible Management

This study material explores the concepts of business ethics and responsible management. It discusses the importance of ethical practices in business decision-making and the impact on stakeholders. The material also covers two ethical theories and their application to a real-life case. Additionally, it delves into the qualities of an ethical leader and how to manage a business to high ethical standards.

Business Ethics and
Responsible Management

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
PART 1............................................................................................................................................4
1. a. Present brief report............................................................................................................4
1. b. Apply ethical theories and demonstrate that you can apply these to the case to show how
your chosen theories lead you to a view on the ethics of the case...............................................7
PART 2............................................................................................................................................8
2. This section requires you to discuss what makes an ethical leader and how you would, as an
ethical manager, manage your business and/or others to a high ethical standard.......................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics and responsible management comprises of necessary issues which needs
to be considered by business entity while formulating desirable decision. Adoption of ethical
practices helps to focus in the well-being of employee, society as well as environment. In simply
words business ethical includes the application of certain amount of standards, principles as well
as investment in the corporate social responsibility. Application of integrative efforts assists in
maintaining responsible behaviour to achieve the objective in terms to deliver significant amount
of values and competencies (Acevedo, 2012).
To better define the topic Johnsons and Johnsons company has been selected which is the
multinational corporation that deals in pharmaceutical business and founded in the year 1886.
Being healthcare company the objective is to safeguard the health of people belonging to
different age group. This report cover topics like present a brief report about Johnson and
Johnson company and describe the approach in terms of marketing as well as swelling the
opioids. Also focus on the issue as well as ethical challenges faced by company which further
affected their whole market. Describe two ethical theories on the basis of case and demonstrate
its application for the well-being of both internal as well as external stakeholders. The second
part of the report include reflective essay that describe what makes an ethical leader and how
they are suitable enough in terms to attain the ethical standards.
PART 1
1. a. Present brief report
Johnsons & Johnson is the well recognised multinational company that started its
business in the year 1886 with medical devices to cater the requirement of people belonging to
diverse age group. The company has suitably function and secured its positions as one of the
well known healthcare companies. Being an employee of organisation extensive efforts were
made in terms to participate on the basis of decision making process to increase the footfall of an
organisation (Baden and Parkes, 2013). The manager objective was to aggressively increase the
sales by investing in diverse marketing campaign that enhance the awareness of product and led
to increase in productivity as well as profitability. This state the self interest of company which
made customer addictive of the opioids epidemic through the campaign which float through the
commercials over internet. Although this enhances the market share of company but make the

people highly addictive of the drugs which affected their lives. Basically these opioid are the
pain relieving drug which gives relive to the people from severs pains. The low doses of opioid
can boost up the pleasure and makes the consumer sleepy but on other side high dose can affect
the breathing as well as hearty rate of an individual’s which can finally leads to the death. Even
the low dose opioid does not help the people in long term (Coldwell, Joosub and Papageorgiou,
2012). Johnson and Johnsons company being a part of pharmaceutics are well versed regarding
the shortcoming of the product but they still comprise the lives of people instead of taking out
better solution of problem.
For a company customer is the most necessary component. In the case study above
company tried to promote and sale a product which result in loss of lives of its thousands of
customers which is morally incorrect. Within business ethics company should make sure that the
conduction is done in such a way that ethics or external environment is not affected. So with
perspective of ethics it was wrong from company’s side to mislead the customers and sell them a
dangerous product like opioids. Furthermore, Johnson and Johnsons was a very bring brand in
terms of pharmaceutical at that time as they use to have huge number of customer base which
means generation higher revenue, so they have the sufficient funds to do scientific research or to
engage with doctors as prescribers of drugs (Crane, and et. al., 2019). But as an employee it can
be said they didn’t used it in the potential they could have or maybe they ignored the fact or took
it lightly as the main motive was to serve the customer by providing them painkiller. Obviously
it is wrong from company’s side to take that matter lightly as it ultimately resultant in loss of
lives which is unethical. Due to this the pharmaceutical sector of the brand lost its market
because the trust of the public was lost as the public was not confident enough to take medication
from company (Fassin, 2012). After seeing all the things which went by the business should
consider the society in which it is operating and the rules or relation of the operation needs to be
set as per wellbeing of society. Social welfare is the core objective of any business especially
when it is operating in large scale as lot of external bodies look towards the business and its
conduct. The business needs to make sure it is setting desirable example in society and even its
employee. Lot of external bodies have stake on the business which is known as stakeholders, the
investor was very dissatisfied as the stock of business went down in after all controversy.
Customer was not ready to purchase from Johnson and Johnson after the incident and all the
other stakeholders like employee of company, suppliers and creditors had a negative impact as

morale and values of business was questioned. The entity need to be responsible once it realise
the causalities are happening because of the repetitive orders of drug without any prescription.
Still, the situation was ignored which results in huge loss of lives so it was very responsible from
company side to ignore such threat. Based on the case, it has been analysed that bad choice have
a adverse impact on the company as not following the ethics may result in loss of thrust of its
internal and external stakeholder (Harris, Wijesinghe and McKenzie, 2012). Moreover, this
situation may result in shut down in some of the cases. The choice which company had was to
sell FDI approved products as this should have taken the approval before selling the opids drug.
Even if it may result in less profit for next few years, it would have reduced the profit for sure
but the image of company will remain untapped.
Conclusion: Thus, after going through case study it can be concluded that the decision
made by company was ethically incorrect as it affected lots of lives of public. Company needs to
be more careful as they need not to ignore this aspect for any reason in the upcoming future.
Recommendations:
 The company should stop the misleading their audience about their product through its
commercials, advertisements and sales worker.
 The manager should be transparent to its stakeholders about all the minute details of the
products which is sold by them like side effects caused by the product needs to be
transmitted in packing or commercials.
 Further, company mush have strong moral principles due to which they can tell their
ethics is more essential then revenue generation even if it results in reduction of profits
for few years.
 Johnsons and Jonson needs to be responsible for their operation and they need to be
countable for their action. This can help in maintaining string ethical culture within the
organisation and further leads in creating a positive environment.
 The internal manager of company should have carried out deep research and gain feasible
solution in terms to handle the situation more significantly. This would have saved the
lives of people by maintaining the image of company. Existence of such crises
immensely affected the reputation of company all over the globe.

1. b. Apply ethical theories and demonstrate that you can apply these to the case to show how
your chosen theories lead you to a view on the ethics of the case.
Ethical theory helps in making or handling life decision it lead to develop attitude of a
person towards others. It gives a firm guideline in which they have to work on as if the firm is
adopting ethical methods while doing the business they are setting right example for their
employees as well as customers. This may help the firm to sustain long term relationship with
their respective clients. Two ethical theories which support the Johnson and Johnson case are as
follows:
Utilitarianism theory: Under this theory fair choices needs to be considered so that it
can be make sure that least amount of harm is done in a given situation. In this a person needs to
decide what actions need to be choosing and what are the options there have. After knowing all
the set of options they have to choose the one which generate the least amount of damage. So it
is a theory where ones need to sacrifice something which is on minority level so that one can
gain a greater good of majority level. To understand the theory let’s take an general example if a
person is kept as hostage and there are other fifty hostage with him it is told to him if he will kill
one of the hostages rest forty none will set free. So if he has to conduct utilitarian theory that one
hostage is killed because it is the collateral damage for a greater benefit of rest forty nine
hostages (Luetge and Jauernig, 2014). Further, due to where one does not need to think about
one other because it is leaving to various lives. In the mentioned case study utilitarian theory is
applicable, as the company tried to increase the sale of opioids even after knowing the limitations
of the same. The thinking about doing this is they wanted to use that drug as a painkiller which
will reduces the pain of hug junk of audience, so they thought they are ready to take risk of the
minor damage which will happen. In this case lot of people got attracted to the drug and huge
amount of people after consuming drug which contain opioids. But the promotion of the product
went on as they were concentrating on the majority which is getting benefitted by the drug.
The theory is valid in this case because the firm when for the greater which is they
wanted to sale the respected opioids drug thinking about reducing the pain for millions of people
all over the globe. But on the other side, it has affected huge number of lives as lots of people
were addicted to the drug and then died after consuming the same. The customer lost their faith
on the company because of the casualties which happened because of the drug and the image of
company was brought down because of the same (Minoja, 2012). Thus, it is somewhere

unethical from company’s side as the product they produced to save life ends of been taking
huge number if lives. Hence, company should not go for that approach as lives are in risk and it
is unethical to risk anybody’s while doing a business. If any situation like that arises a company
should finds for the solution which can eliminate such circumstances where lives of people are
damaged.
Denotology theory: It focuses on the affects of the action and the major believe here is if
there is a situation of life choices an individual should act according to responsibility and
obligation. The main believe of denotology is morality is a responsibility as well as the duty for
everyone. Due to which in this case a general example is taken to better understand the theory.
Suppose a father steals four chapattis o feed his children, it will be supported under this case
because the moral responsibility and obligation of a father is to take care of this family. Under
the case discussed above company kept on producing the drop and selling that on open market
even after knowing that it can cause life damage. Based on this theory if Johnson and Johnson
company is producing a drug which is reducing pain of diverse people, it will be not supported.
Reason being the moral duty and responsibility of company is to eliminate the step if idea which
is affected life of an individual’s so as per case the excess dozes of drug ids leading to addition
and later loss of life (Moosmayer and et. al., 2019). The conclusion derived from denotology
theory is that it will never promote anything which is unethical or inappropriate. Obviously the
greater good here is saving the lives of ones who are getting affected by the drug. Company need
to figure out the cure for the drug other need to stop of sales of drug on immediately basis so that
the loss of life can be eliminated.
PART 2
2. This section requires you to discuss what makes an ethical leader and how you would, as an
ethical manager, manage your business and/or others to a high ethical standard
Leadership that is driven by respect for ethical values and belief and it should take care of
rights of other and the dignity so ethical leadership mainly deals in morale development. Ethical
leaders are someone whose only mode of survival is integrity, making right decision, doing right
things even if it is a loss for firm. According to me, if a person wants to be ethical leader he
should follow the below mentioned points:

Ascertain your values: An ethical leader should treat everyone to same way he want to
be treated by others he should appreciate the efforts of juniors or subordinates and lend a helping
hand to those who are in need. So if the values are defined in advance we need to follow them in
the road to be an ethical leader (Schaltegger and Burritt, 2018). Ethical leader need to do self
introspection and assign values accordingly. Whatever, matters to him as an individual need to
be aligned.
Taking people who shares same values: An ethical leader should hire employee who is
matching and common ground values. He should not hire someone just because of experience
sake but he need to hire people who are aligned with their values. Hiring people who have
different experience and perspective may lead to conflicts as the perception form one individual
to other (Stutz and Schrempf-Stirling, 2020). It is said that without mutual respect bond between
employer and employee cannot be established so hiring people who shares their values may
come handy.
Open communication: If an employee gives an employee a chance to speak up they can
come to know what is going on in their heads and they can action accordingly to sort any
dispute. It is obvious that company can’t bend to every employee demand but what they can do is
to take the suggestions from employee and consider them if they are legit.
No biasness: As human being we tend to get bit biased so it is very natural that we may
respect a work of a particular employee. In this point it is told that employer needs to keep his
bias nature aside and should give equal opportunity to all its employees (Setó-Pamies and
Papaoikonomou, 2016). He should motivate everyone in this team so that they maximise their
potential and carry out their allotted successfully.
Giving appreciation: Under this employer should appreciation the employees who are
following ethics and are not compromising it at all. They should be recognised by the whole firm
as a role model. By giving appreciation to them, ethical manager tell their team that honest is the
essence, by that all employee will get motivated to work on same fashion (Zhang and et. al.,
2015).
Thus, by following these points person can be an ethical leader on add on one more thong
employer can drop is to identify his role model and work according to them. As there are lot of
influential leaders so an employee can choose anyone out of them. The increase of competition
and pressure within employees may result in some unethical practices but the employees. So an

ethical leader need to identify it and make sure it is not done on starts and even if it is done we
needs to find our way to overall it. Proper education about ethical practical to the employees by
the employer may help in reduction of unethical practices within the enterprises.
As an ethical manager I will talk to my employees about eh importance of ethics in the
business how it can help us to sustain for a long term. I will make sure that morale standards are
laid down and if any employer is not following them they will be penalised by firm. As an
ethical leader I will make sure trainings are given to employees so that they get the knowledge
about what is ethical or unethical practice. It is essential to communicate with the employees that
they should not ignore the morals and ethics in pursue of getting profit. Along with that they
should make sure ethics and morale need to be followed strictly and should not be compromised
for anything. It is also important to encourage the employees so that they come up with their
opinions and give insights and idea for the development and welfare of firm. As with this the
workers will keep more confident and more engaged with the firm as they will realise that their
points are taken into considerations and the firm is listening to their valuable feedback.
Additionally, it is vital to leads by an example and set the standard for the employee so that they
can look upto ethical manger and get inspiration out of them. As an ethical manager I believe
another focus needs be on being open minded which means not to be biased to any employee and
to give all the employees opportunity. Even the less performing employee of the firm needs to
be motivated as a good leader knows how to take his whole team forward.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been determined that it is vital for an organisation to
significantly carry out ethical practices which involves the guidelines that needs to be followed
by both employer as well as employee. The objective of an entity needs to be clearly define
where overall personnel work together in order to deliver the value to the customer. In case of
any crises like high amount of opioids in the products of Johnson and Johnson led various people
to sacrifice their lives due to the unavoidable mistake of company. So to deal with such
situations it is the responsibility of the manager to come forward accept their mistakes and take
suitable actions steps. These actions can include removing all products from the retailer as well
as pharmaceutical store and compensate for the lives of people. Hence, it is the responsibility of
overall staff to render ethical practices and participate in smooth operations.

REFERENCES
Books and journal
Acevedo, A., 2012. Personalist business ethics and humanistic management: Insights from
Jacques Maritain. Journal of Business Ethics. 105(2). pp.197-219.
Aßländer, M. S., Gössling, T. and Seele, P., 2016. Business ethics in a European perspective: A
case for unity in diversity?. Journal of business ethics. 139(4). pp.633-637.
Baden, D. and Parkes, C., 2013. Experiential learning: Inspiring the business leaders of
tomorrow. The Journal of Management Development. 32(3). pp.295-308.
Coldwell, D. A. L., Joosub, T. and Papageorgiou, E., 2012. Responsible leadership in
organizational crises: An analysis of the effects of public perceptions of selected SA
business organizations’ reputations. Journal of Business Ethics. 109(2). pp.133-144.
Crane, A., and et. al., 2019. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability
in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press, USA.
Fassin, Y., 2012. Stakeholder management, reciprocity and stakeholder responsibility. Journal
of Business Ethics. 109(1). pp.83-96.
Harris, H., Wijesinghe, G. and McKenzie, S. eds., 2012. The Heart of the Good Institution:
Virtue Ethics as a Framework for Responsible Management (Vol. 38). Springer Science
& Business Media.
Luetge, C. and Jauernig, J. eds., 2014. Business ethics and risk management. Springer.
Minoja, M., 2012. Stakeholder management theory, firm strategy, and ambidexterity. Journal of
Business Ethics. 109(1). pp.67-82.
Moosmayer, D.C., and et. al., 2019. Leaving the road to Abilene: A pragmatic approach to
addressing the normative paradox of responsible management education. Journal of
Business Ethics. 157(4). pp.913-932.
Schaltegger, S. and Burritt, R., 2018. Business cases and corporate engagement with
sustainability: Differentiating ethical motivations. Journal of Business Ethics. 147(2).
pp.241-259.
Setó-Pamies, D. and Papaoikonomou, E., 2016. A multi-level perspective for the integration of
ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability (ECSRS) in management
education. Journal of Business Ethics. 136(3). pp.523-538.
Stutz, C. and Schrempf-Stirling, J., 2020. Using the past responsibly: What responsible
managers and management academics can learn from historians’ professional ethics.
The research handbook of responsible management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Zhang, M. M., and et. al., 2015. Towards a research agenda on the sustainable and socially
responsible management of agency workers through a flexicurity model of HRM.
Journal of Business Ethics. 127(3). pp.513-523.